On November 5, 2015, plaintiffs, pretrial detainees, filed this lawsuit in the United States District Court of New Jersey. The plaintiffs sued Middlesex County under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for the deprivation of rights secured by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. ...
read more >

On November 5, 2015, plaintiffs, pretrial detainees, filed this lawsuit in the United States District Court of New Jersey. The plaintiffs sued Middlesex County under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for the deprivation of rights secured by the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. The plaintiffs, represented by the ACLU and the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender, asked the court to declare that the conditions in solitary confinement are unconstitutional and to enjoin Middlesex County to take all of its inmates out of solitary confinement. The plaintiffs claimed that the conditions in C-Pod, the solitary confinement unit in Middlesex County Jail, were unconstitutional. Specifically, the plaintiffs claim that they are locked in a small cell alone almost continuously; cannot interact with other inmates; cannot be visited by family; cannot participate in religious, educational or rehabilitative programs; and are never allowed outdoors.

The plaintiffs are seeking class action status. However, on January 4, 2016, Judge Peter G. Sheridan granted the plaintiffs' request to withdraw their pending motion for class certification without prejudice so that the ACLU attorneys could get acclimated to the case before proceeding with a dispositive motion.

Judicial Policy Making and the Modern State: How the Courts Reformed America's Prisons
By: Malcolm M. Feeley & Edward Rubin (UC Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law & Vanderbilt School of Law Faculty) Citation: (1998)[ Detail ]